The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: SUZ
ISO 639-2: sit
| Population | 30,000 to 40,000 (1998). |
| Region | Eastern hills, Ramechhap District, Janakpur Zone, and northwestern Okhaldhunga District. |
| Alternate names | SUNUWAR, SUNBAR, SUNWARI, MUKHIYA, KWOICO LO |
| Dialects | SUREL. |
| Classification | Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Himalayish, Mahakiranti, Kham-Magar-Chepang-Sunwari, Sunwari. |
| Comments | Related to Bahing, and more distantly to Thulung, Chourase, and Jerung. Hayu is closest to Sunwar. Younger people speak more Nepali for trade. If people are addressed in Nepali they answer in Nepali, and use it for official purposes and with speakers from other languages. Proficiency not good enough to discuss abstract and complex concepts. Dictionary. SOV; portpositions; genitives after noun heads; relatives before noun heads; question word initial; maximum number of prefixes 1; suffixes 3; verb affixes mark person , number; causatives; comparatives; CV, CVC CVV, CCV, CCVC, V, VC; tonal. Literacy rate in first language: Young people 90%. Literacy rate in second language: Males 15% in villages, 20% in Kathmandu. Literacy effort needed for women. Poetry. Subtropical grassland, valley. Rocky hills with steep sloping sides, mountain slopes. Sedentary pastoralists, sedentary hunter-gatherers, peasant agriculturalists. 1,500 meters. Traditional religion, Hindu. |
